The company formerly known as Yahoo begins its life as Altaba today (AABA, VZ)

Founded in 1994, the company was famous for its homepage which provided a portal to news, entertainment and financial information for many an internet user.

But in recent years, Yahoo struggled to keep up with rivals like Google and Facebook, and eventually began to look for ways to pull more value from the company. The board explored selling off the company's large stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, but the idea was abandoned for tax purposes.

The internet business Yahoo built now operates under the name "Oath" along with the AOL, which Verizon also bought.

The new company, Altaba, owns 383.5 million shares of Alibaba which are valued at about $33.7 billion. It also owns 2 million shares of Yahoo Japan which are valued at $7.7 billion, according to the company's regulatory filing.

The company will also own $12 billion in cash and marketable debts, $130 million in minority investments and $740 million of equity in Excalibur, a subsidiary of the new Altaba that owns several Yahoo patents that were not sold to Verizon.

Shares of the new company began Monday trading at $54.00 and are expected to track the value of Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.